My Findings
While my content initially started by showcasing recently learned gymnastics moves, I realized that gymnastics nature of showcasing interesting combinations of strength, flexibility and air awareness made for engaging content — which was perfect for the instagram algorithm.
Initial Videos
After seeing some engagement with videos, I decided to focus on the strength aspect of gymnastics, where I filmed videos doing strength moves like the iron cross, and a planche, as well as showcasing videos of how my strength progressed over the year. Here is where I had my first couple of viral hits.
Have you ever wanted to learn how to do an Iron cross?
This video might not be the most helpful, but it brought some laughs to the wider gymnastics and calisthenics community.
Attempting an Olympians Signature Strength Move
This video showcases one of my attempts, where I roll my head in a cross, which is the olympic ring champions signature move.
With a solidified understanding that calisthenics and strength content tends to perform relatively well, I decided to pivot from filming gymnastics content to calisthenics content, which turned out to be a huge hit. I started a instagram series called “Combining Calisthenics”, where I would take two calisthenics moves, and combine them into one. This series highlights my understanding of the algorithm — I spiked viewers curiosity by combining calisthenics that many people can do with calisthenics moves that are pretty advanced. As I created more of these videos, I started to incorporate tools such as changing frames every certain amount of seconds, using engaging but easily legible fonts, and creating engaging thumbnails to drive audience retention, which resulted in consistent videos receiving 100,000+ views, with several breaking into the millions. It was eye-opening to see how one format could be so engaging, despite being relatively similar.
Most Recent Video
Simple yet effective: the Pullup
Thumbnails
After adding thumbnails, I noticed that most of my engagement went up 50%. This insight was key: for an extra 10 minutes of editing, my views doubled.
